


Cat's Got Your Tongue

by Corialus



Category: Rainy Day Dreams (Webcomic)
Genre: Awkward, Chasing, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Light Bondage, Not Canon Compliant, cat keyhole outfit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27393976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corialus/pseuds/Corialus
Summary: Tristin dresses in that cat cutout keyhole outfit as a "joke" for Halloween and inadvertently gets Calixte, an actual cat person, all mixed up about it. Non-canonical, ambiguous; set about a year after the start of Rainy Day Dream (webcomic).
Relationships: Tristin/Calixte





	Cat's Got Your Tongue

“So what do you think, Teady? Pretty cute, huh?” Tristin spins around.

“Oh my. And you plan to wear this costume around other people?”

“Um, yes, that’s the whole point of a Halloween costume! It’s kind of a meme outfit, so everyone will get it. It’s sexy and funny—it’ll be great.”

Tristin throws open the door to her bedroom and glances down the hall.

“Michael!?” She calls out, knowing that even if he wasn’t near that he’d still likely hear her.

After a moment, Michael materializes in a fog of shadows. “Yes, Tristin, what— _oh my_ ”

Tristin busts out laughing at the look of surprise and embarrassment on Michael’s face. “So you like my costume?”

Michael stammers and he looks Tristin up and down. She’s wearing a tight crop top with a cat face keyhole cutout, a miniskirt, cat ears, gloves that go past her elbows and stockings that go past her knees, all in black with little pink and white accents. This wasn’t the first time Tristin had orchestrated for him to see her in something to get him flustered and he didn’t suspect it would be the last. Michael regains his composure and pats her cheek with his hand.

“Now you just need the cat makeup and it’ll be perfect. You’ll be the talk of the whole party.”

Tristin pouts briefly, having to accept defeat at how quickly Michael recovers from being flustered anymore.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to go finish getting ready myself. See you downstairs in a bit.” And with that, Michael disappears.

Tristin counts the encounter as a success, savoring Michael’s immediate blush and wide eyed expression, and heads back into her room to add makeup.

x x x

The house buzzes with commotion. Mara had been convinced into inviting many of her old friends, who had all gathered friends of their own; the tenants had been encouraged to invite their friends and family and the whole party filled the ballrooms and spilled into seating areas, cushioned cuddle rooms, patios and gardens, and quiet hallways for private conversations. The guests enjoy the illusion of being able to wander wherever, but the House Spirit swiftly protects private areas by reconnecting doors to open through different doorways and hallways to feed back into themselves.

Tristin flit from room to room, feeling somewhere between admired host and beloved guest of honor, though she was in fact neither. Kaidri fawned over her costume and laughed at the reference (she had since come to appreciate Tristin’s bluntness that made their first meeting so awkward), Romeo didn’t get the joke but took about a hundred selfies with her, Haose could hardly keep from drooling but he had to keep his hands off (he knows what he did).

The most surprising reaction she encountered though wasn’t the raised glass from Carl, the local liquor store owner, or Tua’s blown kiss, but whatever strange mix of agitation and arousal played across Calixte’s face.

“Oh hey, Calixte, I’m like a cat too now!” Tristin teased, spinning her tail in her hand.

“Uh, um.” Calixte steps backwards too quickly and bumps into a counter. He turns around, grabs a drink that almost certainly wasn’t his and drinks it down. “It sure is, yep.”

Tristin raises an eyebrow, noticing how his response didn’t quite make sense. Calixte wasn’t often someone she flirted with, but maybe she was sleeping on a fine contender. However, his reaction now was throwing her for a loop.

“It’s okay to say you don’t like it, Calixte. I won’t be devastated.” Tristin punctuates with a wink for good measure.

“Oh no! It’s just… are you making fun of me?” He awkwardly rubs the back of his head. Tristin had already given him a hard time earlier in the night for just wearing his work outfit, even though he claims that because of the different headband it’s actually like a character from his favorite anime. She hadn’t missed a beat calling him out for designing his work clothes after his favorite anime.

“What? No! I mean, I’m just teasing you?”

Calixte bounces his gaze between Tristin’s eyes and the cat ear headband. It takes… a couple moments for Tristin to click everything into place.

“Oh no! Is it not okay that I’m dressed up like a cat and you’re actually a cat? I didn’t even think about that! Ugh, and Mara or Michael didn’t say anything about it. They’re usually so good at telling me when something is actually offensive to people here ‘cuz, like, I’m not used to strangers also being the real versions of made up monsters back home. Ah jeez, I didn’t mean made up! They were definitely still real because of the portals and Great Migration but-”

“Tristin!” Calixte waves his hands to get her attention focused back on him. “No, no, it’s okay! It’s not offensive and of course it wasn’t on purpose. I thought you were, like, making fun of me specifically by wearing… that outfit. Because it’s a cat and also like the anime thing… But of course it wasn’t directed at me! It’s just… a cute costume!” The transition from consoling to desperately awkward was a messy one.

“You’re right, I did pick it without you in mind. But hey, you’re on my mind now, so let’s go hang out, okay?” Tristin grabs Calixte’s actual drink which he had set down on the counter next to her when she first arrived and hands it to him. He wordlessly sets down the mysterious cup he’d emptied and takes the original one from her. “C’mon!” she says, taking his hand.

x x x

A handful of tenants and a couple of Calixte’s team were hanging out in one of the large pillowed sitting rooms. Tristin sticks her head in after hearing the raucous laughter from down the hall. The tenants all call out to her to beckon her in. She pulls Calixte in after her; the other ninjas excitedly call, but then sit up a little straighter around him. It doesn’t take long for them to loosen up around their “boss” though.

The conversation travels and spirals and branches through the night.

“It’s not that I don’t like the chains, I mean I love fighting with the chains, but maybe I just picked them because I thought they looked cool and not because I came in with any talent at them or, like, because they’re practical.”

“Did you ever meet that one guy who lived her for a few months? Guy was like twelve feet tall and skinny as a rail! That gaunt son of a bitch was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, if you could get past the fact that his voice sounded like a bunch of children stage whispering from across a room.”

“No I will not get off my phone! And, yes, I am still messaging her. Of course I wanted to invite her to the party but what if she doesn’t actually like me like that?”

Tristin and Calixte were sitting near each other, but after a particularly animated recounting of an anecdote, Tristin fell back into a comfy slump nestled against him. Cautiously, he let his arm wrap around her. Her hair was right in his face and it’s not that he didn’t already know what she smelled like because he has a sharp sense of smell, but when she’s right there and everyone is overheating just a bit in the cuddle room, she was intoxicating.

Tristin was aware that she and Calixte had both fallen silent, choosing to listen to the different conversations instead. It felt nice, for that time, in that spot. She found it endearing that he’d wrapped an arm around her, but laughed internally at how awkward his hand was. The poor thing didn’t know where to go, so she took it in hers. It was very warm against her bare midriff.

The sound of a moan and zip startled her out of her trance. One of the ninjas, dressed as a nurse, and the bunyip from room 2B, dressed as some character from a local tv show who wears a suit, were avidly undertaking an intense makeout session. A couple conversations twisted off into more private whispers; a friend of a friend was watching the makeouts with a little too much interest. Suddenly, compounded by the warmth of the room, Tristin felt overwhelmed and left without saying anything.

The hall blurred and warped in the seconds she walked down it. Tristin knew she was pretty deep inside the house, but the House Spirit must’ve done some reorganizing for her because she was stepping outside before she knew it. The cool autumn felt so nice against her face and as it swam down into her lungs. She breathes in deep and lets it go, watching a faint cloud of steam disappear into the night.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Tristin jerks around but softens when she sees it’s Calixte. “Just needed some air.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Tristin looked back into the gardens, speckled with light from countless jack-o-lanterns.

“Is it alright if I stay out here with you?”

“Oh. Mhm.”

“I’m not too keen on watching the people I work with, uh, y’know. I mean, good for them and all, but I don’t have to be a part of it.”

“Do you wanna sit down?” Tristin asks without waiting for an answer as she herself sits down on a swinging bench.

Calixte joins her, very aware of his leg up against her leg, but he doesn’t get any closer. They sit in silence a minute or so, then when she shivers, Calixte reaches into some pocket dimension within his costume and pulls out a long cape and drapes it over Tristin.

“Thanks.” Tristin pulls the cape around her. “Um, where did you get a cape?”

“It was supposed to be part of the costume, but I chickened out when I got here.”

“Well, I’m glad you brought it.” Tristin lets her head fall softly on his shoulder.

After a pause during which Calixte felt he should’ve said something else, he quietly blurts, “I’m sorry.”

“What? No, it’s not your fault that room got too stuffy for the amount of making out that was going down.”

“No, I mean. I’m sorry that, because of me, you’re stuck here. Mara was trying to get you back home, but I was the one who captured you. I’m the one who got you stuck here.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve thought a lot about what if I just hadn’t? What if I had just let you go?”

“Then you wouldn’t have been doing your job.” Tristin found her heart not fully into the role of consoling Calixte. She had never blamed him, specifically, for getting trapped, but she also hadn’t considered that perspective before.

“If I can do anything to make it up to you, to make things easier for you here or to help you get back, I’ll do it.” Calixte nods, his fist balled with determination.

“Calixte. You’re the reason I’m here, but… it’s not your fault. I know that I was in over my head. You and Mara, you were just protecting what was yours, so I understand why you did what you did. And, y’know, now that I’m here, there’s quite a bit to like. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my family and home so much it hurts, but I’ve grown to love this place and the people here too.”

“It’s.. a thing to get over.” Calixte’s thousand yard stare not only betrays his usual demeanor, but also implies to Tristin that he’s talking about himself as much as her.

“Well, if I can get over it, so can you.” Tristin says matter of factly.

“Oh! I mean, it’s all sort of stuck in my head, but that’s just part of the job.”

“No no, you’re fixating on some weird trauma about capturing me and you need to not worry about that. I don’t want you having flashbacks about that shit every time you see me or whatever.”

“Um, okay? It’s not really as bad as all that, but I get where you’re coming from.”

Tristin laughs as she says, “Do you wanna maybe chase me around here and capture me for fun? Seriously, I’m way over it. I’ve had some traumatizing junk and that particular interaction does not add to my pile. So let’s make it silly and fun. Then, whenever you think about it, you also think about chasing me around here.”

Calixte is utterly caught off guard and gutters a whispered, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah! I just needed to get some fresh air, I’m not done partying! I’ll go run around, give me a head start, then you can try to catch me— _if you can!_ ”

“Haha, big words for such a little cat. You’re on! I’ll count to ten.”

Tristin springs off the bench, leaving Calixte rocking in her wake, but already counting. She leaps over the low railing and ducks and weaves into the gardens.

Calixte rushes through five, four, three, and two, already on his feet by one. He vanishes in a cloud of smoke.

Hedges and trellises rush past as Tristin jogs down the pathways. She laughs, confident of her edge from spending so much time on these paths. The confidence is short-lived, however, as she hears a swishing sound bounding from tree to tree.

Tristin curses under her breath and makes a sharp turn to hop across the hidden path that spans the pond. If he’s traveling in the trees, she’ll head to the rose garden with it’s dense winding rows and complete lack of convenient high ground.

The low light keeps Tristin hidden and she figures Calixte is either a safe distance behind or somehow completely silent. The hope for the former is quickly shattered by confirmation of the latter. At the far end of the path she’s on, Tristin sees Calixte’s silhouette. She turns around and darts away, but after only a couple steps her foot snags on a rope trap that twists around her. Tristin falls to the damp grassy ground, panting from running and from, she admits to herself, the excitement of the chase. Her ankles are only loosely tangled up, so she's still able to stand up and look around. The silhouette is gone—must’ve been a decoy, that tricky cat. She turns again and Calixte is there to take her hand and spin her around like they were dancing. Tristin’s heart freezes in her chest and during the beat her heart skips Calixte twirls her full circle and secures both of her arms together behind her back. He dips her in a low tango swoon and then drops her softly to the ground.

“I caught you.”

Tristin struggles against the restraints and is dramatically taken aback by how her dislike of losing has been totally overrun by how turned on she is. She tries to say something witty or sexy, but only gasps.

Calixte leans in close. “Now what to do with this lost little kitten.” He is frustratingly smooth. Tristin can only reconcile this person as the same goof she's always known by that cheeky, toothy grin.

Catching him utterly off guard, Tristin kisses Calixte on the lips. She then takes advantage of his stunned state, presses her head hard against his shoulder and pushes him on the ground next to her. She follows the motion, getting up on her knees, the ankle wraps loosening. She swings one leg wide, straddling his hips, and looks down on him. She enjoys a cheeky grin herself, even though her hands are still tied behind her back.

“You might’ve caught me, but it’ll take a lot more than that to keep me.” She leans in close to whisper into his ear, “So, what’ve you got?”


End file.
